Dutch Printed Collections, 1501-1850

The early Dutch collections in the British Library are rich and extensive, the largest collections to be found anywhere outside the Low Countries.

The Plantin or Elsevier imprints, for example, can rival those held in the national libraries of Belgium or the Netherlands. The superb history of printing in the Low Countries is reflected in the British Library holdings. Poetry, drama, theology, and politics (an enormous collection of pamphlets) are very well represented, and so too are the natural sciences.

Catalogues

The Library's holdings of early Dutch/Flemish printed materials are also described in:

Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in the Netherlands and Belgium and of Dutch and Flemish Books Printed in Other Countries from 1470 to 1600 now in the British Museum (London, 1965).

Catalogue of Books from the Low Countries 1601-1621, compiled by AEC Simoni (London: British Library, 1990).

All 17th-century Dutch imprints held in the British Library (some 17,500) have now been recorded on the Short Title Catalogue Netherlands (STCN). This joint project with the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague is still in progress. At present, pre-1600 titles from the British Library's collection are being added. 18th-century imprints will be added at a later date.

Contact

Dutch/Flemish Section
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
United Kingdom